Carib Gourmet is Caribbean lifestyle company including a Fine Food shop with gourmet food from the French Caribbean. Explore an array of rare Caribbean products including French Caribbean rare rums, exotic preserves, chutneys and honeys and one of the best coffees in the world, Guadeloupe Bonifieur Coffee. Discover French Caribbean literature, music and art. Carib Gourmet www.carib-gourmet.com

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Ambarella - also called Golden Apple - is an exotic fruit which can be found in all tropical countries but especially in the Caribbean. Ambarella is similar to the mango, it is sweet and can be either eaten raw or used to prepare juices and syrup. Check out our slide presentation of Ambarella.

Friday, 24 May 2013

You now know the difference between White and Dark rum but do you know what rhum agricole is? If not, this blog post is for you!

Rhum Agricole is the French term for "cane juice rum", which is distilled in the French West Indies islands from freshly squeezed sugar cane juice rather than from molasses. Cane juice rums are sometimes also found in Trinidad, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

As you know now, most rums are made from molasses, a byproduct of sugar refining.

In the sugar cane spirits industry, only rums from Martinique can carry the label "AOC Rhum Agricole". AOC literally means "Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée" (protected designation of origin). It is a sign of recognition from French and European laws for rums produced on the island of Martinique that meet certain local standards.

In addition to its different production process, Rhum Agricole has also a different taste. It is often light-bodied and tends to have a beautiful scent, with fruity aromas such as bananas, passion fruit or similar fruits. Matured distillates of course absorb scents from the casks, sometimes creating lovely mixtures of vanilla, coffee and chocolate aromas.

Rhum blanc – is harmonised for 3 months in stainless steel barrels. It is said to reflect the typical taste of freshly cut sugar cane. It is brought to 50-59% alc./vol. using only water or sugar water.

Rhum paille – is matured in oak casks for about 12 to 18 months. It has a light colour and is usually bottled at 50% alc./vol.

Rhum vieux – has to mature for at least 3 years in oak casks that may not hold more than 650 litres (172 gallons). Alcohol content is 45% alc./vol. in 3-year-old rums.Rhum Hors d'age - Rhum vieux which has to mature for at least 6 years.Spicy rum - Spiced rums contain flavors from spices and other exotic elements that give the rum a unique and interesting characte
To buy some of the best rums in the caribbean, visit our online rum cave now!

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Rum is a spirit made from both fermented sugar cane and by-products
such as molasses by the processes of fermentation and distillation. The
majority of the world's rum production occurs in the Caribbean and Latin
America.

Rum is most commonly available as white rum, gold rum, and dark rum. As
previously stated the amount of time the rum is aged and the type of cask it is
aged in, determines the color of the rum. There are also some differences in
the taste and uses of the different rums.

White rum (also called silver or light) is more popular in Spanish
speaking countries. It is fermented in steel and filtered and has a clear colour
and a light, slightly sweet taste. This milder flavour makes them popular
to use in mixed drinks as opposed to be drunk straight as the dark rum.

Rich, caramel dark
rum (also called red or black) more
common in English speaking countriesis made by aging clear rum
in charred oak barrels, giving it a deep brown colour and a full flavour. It is
usually drank straight and used for cooking. They come mostly from Martinique, Jamaica,
and Haiti, as well as Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Note that spiced rum, which is flavoured with spices and
(often) caramel, is not qualify as dark rum.

Gold or amber rums are
aged in oak, which produces a more caramel colour and richer, more pronounced
flavour.

Monday, 13 May 2013

Soursop is a tropical fruit native to South and Central America and the Caribbean. The flesh is white, sweet and sour. It is eaten raw when fully ripped. Soursop is also used to make delicious juice, jam and even confectioneries. Check out our presentation of Soursop and see how you can use it.

To discover more exotic products, visit our website and follow us on Facebook.

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

A good subtitle for this blog post would be: "The day a Guadeloupe expat sees a meaningful film shot on her native island."

For me to travel all the way
to west london, there must have been a good reason. The reason was a showing of "Elza"
or "Le Bonheur d'Elza" as it is in its original title. The film didn't fail to
disappoint.

I arrived at Ciné Lumiere in
South Kensington slightly belated. (I have an excuse: sun in London isn't a
regular occurence so I HAD to have a picnic that day in my village i.e
Greenwich). I couldn't bring food in the
theatre and thought "bummer how is a non-stop eating Carib Gourmet going to
survive." But I digress.

The plot was very mysterious,
my imagination drifted and I initially thought there was a story of incest involving the
grandad and his grand daughter, and you could physically feel the discomfort portrayed
by the characters. I loved the hazy feel, the
anxiety, the tension... The duality of the characters, their vulnerability and
the internal turmoil.

A young woman born in Guadeloupe but raised in Paris goes back to her native island to find the father she only has distant souvenirs of. She wants to meet him, make him love her and tell her she's beautiful. She wants her father.

The father a somewhat mixed raced man,
that has scattered child across the small (1500km2), enjoys entertaining
adulterous relationships with gorgeous dark skninned women - including his
bankers wife - yet reject his African heritage by showing no love to his matte
skinned daughter, refuses custody to his other daughter's partner and father of
grand daughter Caroline on the basis that his "too dark". His beloved fair-skinned daughter is in a mental instituion due to the pressure she felt from he rfather and the fact she forbid her to see a lover, the previously mentionned "too dark man". Mr Désiré says things like "with kinky hair like
yours, there's NO WAY you could be my daughter!"The entire film one awaits the moment the secret will be revealed.

Although the movie is about Elza and her quest to find her identity, my
favourite character is this ambivalent, oh so tortured man, Mr Desiré. He represents the duality
inherent to most Caribbean natives: the stigma of slavery and colonialism, the
self hatred many experience in different manners, the difficulty of upholding
standards in such a micro-environment, the womanising aspect of the culture,
the difficulty of being a good father and the loneliness...

I felt understood by watching
this film. Although it isn't my story it reflected the environment I grew up
in. The Q & A sessions after
the showing revealed even more sentiments of inadequacy from the audience who I
think probably was not comfortable enough in their skin to witness the telling
of a story just for the sake of it. No mandate and no masterplan to diminish
the women pertening to what they called the "darker hue" which I
actually found quite diminishing as a statement anyway.

It just felt really good to
see my island, my culture depicted in a different manner (as in not just a
paradise-like, everyone-happy-drinking-rum-and-dancing-zouk type of
portrayal). It was good quality cinema, I feel we should see more of these
initiatives. Not specifically made to revendicate, lobby or fall into communitarism
but just narrate the accounts of characters who happen to be based in the
Caribbean and fall into a plot that happens to be tinted with local issues
pertaining to their location. I don't understand why there
can be so many amazing books by awfully talented Caribbean authors, yet films
are such rare commodities and so underrated. I guess it comes down to the nerve
of wars (that a frenglicism): the dough, the quids, the MONEY!

Vanessa with director Mariette Monpierre

Mariette Monpierre encourages
the youth to take up their iPhone and start filming saying "if you want to tell
a story, don't wait for funds, just do it."I salute Mariette for taking
up your cross, making herself vulnerable by baring her feelings and some of
her story for all to see (the film is partly autobiographical). She provided great entertainment in a lukewarm London
Bank Holiday Monday night. After
the microphone is off and the questions are answered, that's all it, pure and
simple - although very enjoyable and refreshing - entertainment.